At high noon, the FTSE100 was up 37.96 points at 5,680.58 with the FTSE250 ahead 59.2 points at 10,063.4 and the FTSE Smallcaps 3.81 points better at 2,878.6.

NEW YORK

US stock futures suggest a quiet start, investors cautious ahead of quadruple witching.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were little changed, S&P500 futures fell less than a point at 1,161 and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 1.5 points at 1,940.2.

LONDON MARKETS

A busy morning in London was inspired by an upbeat statement from Lloyds Banking Group. The bank said that it had seen a strong start to 2010 and believes that it will be profitable on a combined businesses basis in 2010.

Lloyds shares soared 5.4p (9.7%) at 60.95p in heavy volumes, with Royal Bank of Scotland jumping 2.42p at 44.42p, Barclays ahead 8p at 360.9p and HSBC 4.1p better at 685.1p. Asia-focused Standard Chartered moved up a more modest 1.5p at 1,773p.

Hedge fund manager Man Group recovered from recent doubts with a gain of 7.1p at 248.1p, while Schroders rose 31p at 1,407p and private equity group 3i added 3.4p at 292.1p.

Hopes of a US recovery after yesterday's pleasing economic data pushed metals prices higher, giving most of the miners a boost.

ENRC was the best of the bunch, gaining 29p at 1,192p, while Fresnillo rose 17.5p at 854p, Xstrata added 15p at 1,185p and Anglo American improved 12p at 2.745p. Gold miner Randgold Resources bucked the trend, down 18p at 4,919p as the precious metal eased below $1,122 an ounce.

British Airways continued to make progress, up 3.4p at 245.9p, on hopes of a last minute deal with the Unite union, also helped by broker Davy raising its target on the stock to 310p from 265p.

Among the pharmaceutical stocks AstraZeneca made further moves higher, up 23.5p at 2,934p, and Shire added 10p at 1,465p, but profit-taking pushed GlaxoSmithKline 4.5p lower at 1,267.5p.

Other notable blue chip gainers included defence contractor BAE Systems, up 8.9p at 385.4p, credit checker Experian, up 11.5p at 653.5p, software house Autonomy, 42p better at 1,839p, and leisure group Whitbread, ahead 33p at 1,552p.

On the downside with blue chips, Cairn Energy was the biggest faller of the day so far, down 5p at 389.1p.

Cigarette makers eased with BAT losing 13p at 2,250.5p and Imperial Tobacco down 4p at 2,044p.

Utility groups were out of favour, with Drax slumping 6.7p at 363.8p, Scottish & Southern Energy off 10p at 1,107p and Centrica 3.9p lower at 294.1p.

Other notable casualties included can maker Rexam, off 1.2p at 292.8p, household goods conglomerate Unilever, down 6p at 1,938p, and Carphone Warehouse, 1.4p lower at 193.6p.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire